March of the Nations – 15 May 2018

Yesterday Randi and I were treated as special guests at the March of the Nations events in Jerusalem. This year’s event was the first time that it had been held in Israel, and it was done so in honor of Israel’s 70th year celebrations, and especially in honor of — as are all of the Marches of the Nations around the world each year — Holocaust survivors and their families. One of the victims spoke about surviving two death marches, but having participated in five Marches of Life. His life after the horrors of WW2 and the Nazi death camps is a story of death and restoration: 22 members of his family, including two great-grandchildren, live in Israel today.

Up to 6000 people from over 40 nations came together with their nations’ flags, and heard moving testimonies from children and grandchildren of Nazi perpetrators express their heart-felt remorse over what their families and country did in the extermination of 6,000,000 Jews during the Holocaust, simply because they were Jews.

Jobst Bittner, from Tubingen, who with his wife Charlotte, founded the March of the Nations more than 10 years ago, as a means of breaking the silence of not speaking about the Holocaust and the guilt upon the nation of Germany, and upon Christians and churches who turned a blind eye and did nothing to intervene. This march has spread to countries around the world around the time of Holocaust Remembrance Day, to express solidarity with the Jewish people and with the State of Israel. Many, probably most, of these participants are Christians, who are confessing their sins against God and His people, and how so much anti-Semitism has become part of Christianity.

It is important to note here that anti-Semitism did not begin with Christians or with the ‘Church’, but was already manifested by Pharoah against the Hebrews during the time of Moses and the Exodus, and by Haman, who served in the court of the Persian king during the time of Mordecai and Queen Esther. It is an irrational hatred and contempt for the people whom YHVH has chosen to be His beloved and holy people; therefore, anti-Semitism is really spiritually directed against God.

It was actually exciting to walk through the well-known (to us) streets of Jerusalem in the big crowd, and to witness how the marchers and flag-bearers came bearing peace and good-will for Israel and the Jewish people. There was also a gala performance by well-known musicians, singers, and dancers to the delight of the thousands of people — including 1500 Holocaust survivors and descendants — held in Sultan’s Pool in the evening. Helping Hand Coalition, an Israeli-based charity founded and directed by Andre & Bozena Gasiorowski to assist Holocaust survivors here, also helped organize the events of the day.

We must also not keep silent about God’s righteous judgments still to come. Jacob’s Trouble is still coming; the Jewish people still do not know YHVH or accept their need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to love and to serve Him with all their heart. The nations will also come to know that YHVH is the true God, and He is the God of Israel. He is powerful and faithful to save the remnant of His people through such great tribulation, and we must not leave them unprepared, or our churches to suffer with them. As John the Baptiser prophesied: Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, and with fire. Holy is the LORD.